Rookie prepares for second minor league season

Rookie Davis is no grizzled veteran — heck, the 19-year-old former Dixon High School star still can go days with only a whisper of whiskers.

But with a year in the New York Yankees’ minor league organization, he learned more than a few things about pitching as well as the Yankee way of doing things, which he hopes will help him heading into his second spring training in Tampa later this month.

Davis also learned about himself.

“I feel I put in the work this off-season and my mindset was, I didn’t want someone to outwork me,” Davis said during a recent interview in his alma mater’s weight room. “And I’m continuing to learn. There are plenty of guys that know more, and it’ll always be that way.

“I didn’t want to get down there and feel like someone had outworked me this off-season. So physically I told mom and dad and (Dixon) coach (Jack) Brown that I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in right now.

“And mentally I’m working to get where I want to be. I feel like I’m in a good place. I feel like my focus is there where it needs to be.”

The goal isn’t exactly simple, but it is straightforward.

Davis wants to get to Charleston, where the Yankees have their full-season single-A team. But he also knows he could wind up remaining in Tampa for extended spring training and then be assigned to Staten Island, where the Yankees have a short-season single-A team.

That, Davis said, is the “worst case,” which was not a judgment but simply the reality of life as a professional.

“But I’ll at least know that I pushed myself,” he said. “They may see me doing well in extended and think he’s worked hard, let’s give him a couple starts in Charleston and then when Staten Island starts I get moved there. But I don’t have any control over that.

“My job is to push the envelope. I want them if they decide, ‘Well, we’re going to keep him in extended,’ I want someone in that room to second-guess it. And while it may not change the group decision, I just want to do what I know I can do and get that edge that I had in high school.

“I had a bulldog mindset in high school, and this first year (in the minors) it was, you know, you’re out there for three or four innings, and some days you’ll start, some days you’re behind the other starter, and it was hard to get that edge.

“I got the ball in high school and in my mind I knew I was going seven. I was going to come right at you, and I kind of lost that swagger, I guess you could say, that I had. But I’ve found that again, and I’m going to go out there and try to dominate this year.”

Davis had a solid first year with the Yankees’ Gulf Coast League rookie affiliate in Tampa, a year that certainly would have been more impressive had he not suffered a virus that saw him drop 25 pounds to go along with at one point battling a 104-degree fever.

Davis said he is only now recovered from the virus, which sidelined him for a month.

“I don’t think people realize the physical toll that I took,” said Davis, who weighs 238 pounds and looks like he’s added another inch to his 6-foot-5 frame. “I’m just feeling now where I’m 100 percent.”

Always under a strict pitch or inning limit, Davis finished with a 2-1 record and a 2.65 earned run average. He struck out 17 and walked 4 in 17 innings while allowing 17 hits and 9 runs (5 earned). Foes hit .250 against him.

For a teenager used to getting the ball and throwing seven innings every outing in high school, being in the GLC was a big change. While looked at as a starter by the Yankees, Davis might start a game — or he might come in at the start of an inning.

But never did he come in during the middle of a frame. That was the job of the pitchers the Yankees had tabbed as relievers. Beyond that, once he hit his pitch (or inning) limit, Davis would be pulled. He then would complete whatever work he needed to do in the bullpen while the game continued on.

“I got taken out of two or three games where I had two outs. I had three or four pitches left and I can’t go over the pitch limit. So they’ll take you out before you get to it. Then I would have games where I’d go four innings on 20 pitches.

“It’s tough. There was a time when I threw four pitches in the first inning (and) eight in the second and had to go to the bullpen and finish my work for the day. That was frustrating because you’re in a game, you’re doing well, you want to keep going and the game’s over.

“But it’s a learning thing your first year.”

This time around should be different. First, he’ll be working under a new pitching coach, Gil Patterson, who came over from the Oakland A’s. Second, Davis figures his pitch and inning limit would have to go up, right?

“I haven’t heard yet,” he said, adding with a new pitching coordinator some things were bound to change. “I would like to go seven innings every fifth day. I don’t know one guy that wouldn’t. But they have different cases for different people. For me, it may be a 65-pitch limit. For another kid it may be 75. They do things on a case-by-case basis.”

Until Davis and his father, Billy, leave for Tampa on Feb. 16, the younger Davis will be working hard preparing for mini camp and then the start of spring training in early March. He knows his goal of being assigned to Charleston won’t be easy.

“Charleston would be the limit, and that’s really pushing the envelope for the Yankees. They’re not known for promoting guys really fast. They like to take their time, especially with guys that they’ve got some money invested in. It’s a business. The more money that is spent, obviously the more care,” he said.

“Let’s say I’m in Charleston dominating. They won’t move me. I’ll stay there or they may send me to Staten Island. It’s a mental thing. They want you to feel good. I could have a 1.00 ERA in Staten Island and think, ‘Why aren’t they moving me?’ It’s because they don’t feel like you’re ready yet mentally.

“You go to Charleston and give up five runs in the first, that’s going to take a hit on you. So they just want to make sure you’ve got a good foundation…. If you’re dominating, you’re dominating. And if you struggle, you’ve got to figure something out.”

Either way, Davis didn’t shy away from the importance of his second pro season.

“To me, this year is a big year,” he said. “Last year I had good numbers, but I know that I could have had a lot better numbers if I would have been healthy. I hate to use this phrase, but I know a lot of people doubt what I can do now.

“People see me as a big, physical guy that’s supposed to go deep into games, and I didn’t live up to that. I understand that. I know some of it had to do with the health issue thing that I had. But to me this year it’s a big year because I want to go out and show people what I’m capable of doing and ultimately show myself just how far I can push myself to do what I know I’m capable of doing.”